The subject for today is the concept of ‘Butterfly effect’.
The term “The Butterfly Effect”, was a phenomenon proposed in a doctoral thesis written in 1963 by Edward Lorenz. It states that a butterfly, by flapping its wings in one place and time is able to create a major weather event in another place and time, eventually having a far-reaching ripple effect on subsequent events.
I find this theory very fascinating and definitely agree with it. Every action we take in life has an impact on both ourselves and the people that we are surrounded by. Day to day we do things that we may not even think twice about and we definitely don’t think about what it will cause down the road. This theory can be applied to so many different things in life.
Let’s take for example raising a child. From the minute they are born they are observing their surroundings and absorbing everything. The environment that you create for your child is building the foundation of their lives. This may not even be the treatment you give your child but how you treat others in the house for example. A young child is like a sponge and they absorb everything. This may not be evident immediately but as they get older they will take those examples and apply them to their lives and how they treat others. Let’s say you are always yelling and screaming most likely that child is going to grow up thinking that is the norm and you have now created an angry human being. Let’s say you are unfaithful in the relationship and nothing gets done about it and that behavior goes on over and over and over and over; you have just taught your child that it is okay to act like that and chances are that will become the norm for them. You have now created another unfaithful human being and that could continue over and over through the generations.
Another example is just the day to day interactions you have with people. I am the type of person that as I walk I say good morning or hello to everybody I walk by whether I know them or not. It surprises me that I do considering I am so shy but it makes me feel better about myself. For me it is something so simple and rewarding. Let’s use this greeting as the small action. Who knows but me saying good morning to someone each day may be what is keeping this person from committing suicide because nobody pays attention to them. I would say that is definitely something very small that I just do naturally that could have enormous impact such as saving a life. These past few weeks I was feeling very stressed out and I had kind of reached my limit of stress last night. A couple of people I know invited me to a concert last night that I decided to go to last minute. I walked into the venue feeling a hot mess and after a few laughs I left feeling like a new person. When they invited me to the concert they had no idea that I was stressed out but that simple invite and laughter prevented me from a downward spiral of stress and internal explosion.
Things like waking up late or leaving the house and then having to turn around because you forgot something are all things that happen daily. That delay in me leaving the house could have prevented me from getting into a huge accident.
In summary what we do each day that is just part of our daily routine is changing the future in some shape or form. I think this quote sums it up beautifully:
Watch your thoughts;
they become words.
Watch your words;
they become actions.
Watch your actions;
they become habits.
Watch your habits;
they become character.
Watch your character;
it becomes your destiny.
– Frank Outlaw
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